My Fender Classic Series ’50s Stratocaster sounds quite a bit thinner than I expected. Actually a lot thinner than my Telecaster. I didn’t expect that. But it’s not a really big issue since you can do something with that sound as well, and apart from that I am working with AmpliTube, a powerful VST software that allows me to alter the tones of my guitar. AmpliTube comes with tons of finished presets, but if you want my opinion about them, here we go… forget them, they sound shitty. I think this is also why so many people think AmpliTube wouldn’t sound good. But you know what? It’s probably the best guitar VST out there. I said it’s powerful because you can create your own presets. Yes, you can basically modify any tiny detail of your sound. You can chose from tons of amps and cabs, room microphones, pedals, rack effect and what not. But that’s not where it ends, because in any of these areas you can make very detailed adjustments.
I didn’t just suggest to forget the standard presets, I did it myself. I never use them, I create individual presets for every I guitar I own, and they sound a lot better than the presets that come with AmpliTube. Yes, I meant individual presets. I have a folder for Tele presets, for Stratocaster presets and so on. For my older guitars I created already tons of presets. But over the last weeks I started to do the same for my Stratocaster. I guess I already created 40 presets for that guitar as well. In this post I just want to talk about one presets I created that sounds pretty nice with my Stratocaster. In the amp section I did choose a Fender Twin Reverb amp (Called American Vintage T in AmpliTube) as 100W 6L6V model. As EQ Model I used the American Tube Clean 2.
Since my Stratocast sounds a bit thin, I increased Bass and Middle, but I decreased Treble since the highs need to be tamed on that guitar. As cab I used the 65′ Princeton, my favorite cab in AmpliTube. I used two mics a Condenser 67 panned to the left, and a Velo-8 panned to the right. Panning microphones in AmpliTube is something you should try, because it makes the room sound a lot better. In the pedal section I used a Diode Overdrive pedal, with the distortion knob set all the way back, because it was more about boosting my Stratocaster and not so much about adding distortion. In the rack section I added a Tube Compressor, Digital Reverb and Delay. Here is how the preset sounds with my Classic Series ’50s Stratocaster, don’t take my playing serious, I was just noodling around with the preset…
What I don’t find that funny is that I found an issue with my Stratocaster. When I touch any metal parts on it (strings, screws, bridge and so on), it makes a popping/crackling sound. I know single-coil pickups are more noisy, and my Telecaster is doing the same but not that badly. It’s not a big issue with my Telecaster, but with the Stratocaster it’s quite loud and can get into my way when I play. If you don’t know what I mean, you can here it around 1:30 in my video. So, I did a bit of research and it seems it could either be a grounding problem, or the guitar is badly shielded under pickguard or not at all.
I am not sure if I am brave enough to fix it myself, but I already found a lot of information’s and videos on it. An alternative would be that I bring it to my guitar store, they have a tech section, I am just not sure how much they would take for shielding or looking for grounding issues. Anyway, I absolutely love how the guitar feels and plays in my hands, and I also love the sound with all those presets I created. I will fix the mentioned issue in the future.
Diary of Dennis 
Firstly that’s a great strat tone! Pure and clear! Think the crackle might be grounding. I remember getting that sound changing pickups with the selector but not simply touching anything. Maybe get a guitar tech to look at it? Probably an easy fix
Now after creating my own presets, I absolutely like the tone too. But since the pickups sound thin, I cheated with the 8 Band EQ and other stuff in AmpliTube. 🙂
I tried to find out how I can make it crackle. The crackle stops as long as I keep touching the metal parts like the strings. This also explains why it barely happens when I play… it only happens during breaks when I am not “connected” to the metal anymore and touch it again. So, should be a grounding issue. Yes, I will let a tech look at it soon because this is annoying. Apart from this issue I absolutely love the guitar. The neck feels great, and the tone is a welcomed alternative to my other guitars.
Yeah the tone is unmistakable. Strat all the way. Everyone needs a strat I think. I need to get on it
I wanted one too because different feel (to give variety) and to get the Strat tone for some recordings. My grandpa had one back then and I used to play on it, so it was also a bit about nostalgia. It was said all over the web that the Mexican 50`s Classic Series is very basic, but in a sense that it’s basic like Strats of the old days, delivering the tone of old times without much modern shenanigans. That made me keen of researching more. Then I wondered if I buy a new one but I was shy, and I eventually decided to look at the secondhand market and found a much better bargain there. Should have done the same with my other guitars, there is a lot of money to be saved 😀
You can say that again. Almost no reason to buy guitars new… Unlike say, Computers..
this is the third time I’ve listened to this, and I still get goosebumps. The tone on this is marvelous, I can see why you keep going back to it.
I am glad you like it. I totally love that hobby. When things are too busy in life, too much stress during the day, or if I am sad or happy… I grab one of the guitars in the evening and experiment with chords and different tones. It’s both, fun and a good method to get the head free 🙂
The Stratocaster sound is somewhat iconic. That’s why I wanted one. But as mentioned, I don’t like that it sometimes makes crackle noises. I am interested to shield the electronics in the future. I will either research how I can do it, or I will let a guitar tech guy do it for me.